Oluwadamilare Opadotun is the secretary of the Start Them Early Program (STEP) club at Vetland Senior Grammar School in Lagos.
She was one of the panelists that discussed teachers’ and students’ experiences in teaching and learning agriculture during the I-Youth Connect conference, organized by the Innovative Youth in Agriculture (I-Youth) project in Lagos recently.
The I-Youth project through the STEP component is reaching out to young people like Oluwadamilare in secondary schools, teaching them modern agriculture, exposing them to agribusiness, and changing their perception about agriculture.
While relaying her experience, 14-year-old Opadotun stated that she perceived agriculture as “old people’s” profession because of the images she had seen and how farmers were portrayed in society. She also felt that agriculture was a job for the poor and a form of punishment, which had not been taught in an encouraging manner to secondary school students.